First meetings

Chapter 9: Tastumi's 'Mayoi is in the ceilings' sensors go off

Tatsumi is very sure he didn't have alcohol or an overdose of weed at any point in his life (except for that one time, but that's not important right now). Right now though, he was constantly rubbing his eyes and pinching himself to see if he was actually sleeping and his unitmates weren't missing alongside many other idols in ES. On top of that, he's pretty sure that 5 of the six people had introduced themselves with names from the bible and saying that they came from somewhere that is the equivalent of hell?? He's praying that his unitmates aren't in deep crap right now.

Mayoi felt like he was half in deep shit and half in the perfect place for a dark creature like him. Maybe they were lying and they did actually die and this is where he ended up. But precious, cute little Aira and Shinobu here too? Maybe he had tainted them with his presence. 'Aaah, I'm such a worthless thing.'

"Mayoi-senpai! Are you there?"

"EEEP!!"At the sudden calling of his name, he broke out of his thoughts and jumped, causing his weight in the vent to shift and him to fall out and land on someone. He quickly recovered and scrambled back spouting out many sorry's and self deprecation to whoever it was he landed on.

"Wah! Are you alright Phantom-san~☆"

Mayoi wants to die in a hole even more after realizing he had landed on Wataru. He looked up at the strange ensemble of Hiiro, Wataru, Shinobu, and Diavolo. Shinobu reaches out his hand to help Mayoi up. "Were you nin ninning in the ceiling, Mayoi-dono?"

"Y-yeah.." He takes Shinobu's hand.

"Or were you as the kids say, 'In our walls?'" Diavolo adds in with a loud laugh. Reminds him slightly of Rinne and Hiiro. Just add in a sprinkle of 'Grandpa' and you have a Diavolo.

"Erm, no??"

Keito had decided to let the strangers help out with Idol activities and lives during their stay at ES because of the huge lack of idols. They had practically been interrogated about their abilities. It turns out everyone was able to sing. Except for Mc. It was quite out of tune and that was Tatsumi putting it lightly. Keito put them as the temporary producer while everyone else was put as temporary idols and backstage helpers. Since there were also multiple dorms that now only had one idol in them, Keito had also arranged for each of them to stay roomed with at least one idol in case they get lost or need help with something. Tatsumi had been roomed with Mika, Mc, and Mammon. They were going to be taking the large, now empty dorm that had belonged to Subaru, Wataru, Madara, and Sora who were all in the other world, leaving the normally loud and joyful dorm to be reduced to abnormal and uncomfortable silence. Tatsumi tosses his pillow onto his mattress, now in the middle of the room and on the floor, and proceeds to make his bed. He hears a loud pwoof accompanied by a groan from one of the beds.

"Ngaahhh," Mika's voice is muffled by the pillow. "Ah can't believe Oshi-san was one of th' people that got teleported..."

Tatsumi knows Mika was just talking to himself but he can't help but say something. "How are you doing, Mika-kun?"

"Nahh, I'm doin' alright, thanks fer askin' Tatsumi-kun.. I've held Valkyrie up solo before when Oshi-san was stayin' in France. Ah'm pretty sure ah can do it again!" Mika tried to sound more confident. It failed miserably as he sank deeper into the blankets with a sigh.

Tatsumi was about to start having deep thoughts about how he'll be able to keep Alkaloid going, especially with his bad legs, on his own. He was interrupted by the door swinging open and loud chatter from the hallway.

"So glasses just wants us ta sing and help around and we'll be given lodging and pay?"

"Yep." Mc and Mammon walk in carrying 2 Futons and a plastic bag of clothing.

"Woo! It shouldn't be that hard! This'll be easy grimm!!"

"Mammon, they don't use grimm. We're using something called L instead. Hello, Kazehaya-senpai, Kagehira-senpai." Mc bows slightly in greeting.

Tatsumi nods from his bed and Mika says a hello muffled by the pillow.

Mc drops their futons onto the floor, rolls them out and falls face first into the one closest to them. Mammon sits beside Mc and pats their back.

"Was grabbing 2 futons and clothes that hard?" Tatsumi questions. Mc looked like they had gone through a tornado or something with their messy hair and the shadows under both their eyes even though they hadn't even been there for more than a few hours.

"No, we were just bombarded with so many tasks so suddenly. We haven't actually even done anything yet." They pull out their strange looking phone, open a document and show it to Tatsumi. Mika shuffles over to look too and his eyes visibly widen. The list of things Mc was given to do was stuffed onto a 10 page document with size 12 font. Tatsumi sweat drops at all the tasks.

"Ya think that's bad?" Mammon crawls over and shows his phone, which was two times longer than Mc's. Tatsumi feels the extreme urge to give them both a pat on the back and a hug. Maybe even an extra urge to help them out on their tasks too, despite his leg.

"Hello! My name is Karasu, your virtual assistant to guide you through the Devildom! Please tell me how I can help to better your experience with your new DDD!"

Mayoi looks at his replacement phone unsure of how to respond to the little crow in the middle of the screen. Earlier Mayoi had tried using his phone but sadly, there was no service so he couldn't let Tatsumi know they were okay. At the meeting that Diavolo had gathered everyone to, they were given phones (D.D.D.s) and schedules for the classes they were going to attend.

"This Karasu person seems really nice!" Hiiro was tapping onto random apps that Karasu was guiding him to and explaining how each of them worked. Aira had quickly gotten used to the new phone and had somehow managed to find himself on an idol site. He avidly scrolled through the site with vigor, completely ignoring the outside world and gasping excitedly every now and then.

"Hello? Are you going to answer me?"

"Eep?!" Mayoi almost drops his phone. Luckily, Hiiro has amazing reflexes and manages to catch it.

"Just kidding haha, I can't hear anything you say so feel free to tap on the screen when I'm done speaking!" Karasu being an AI, monotonously laughs. Hiiro pulls out his schedule from his bag and looks through it. "Hey Mayoi-senpai, what classes do you have?"

Mayoi looks at his own schedule and shows it to Hiiro (and Aira, if he was paying attention). He had Devildom history first, Potions next, a free period, and Sorcery as his last. He was about to answer but is cut off with Aira finally joining them in reality. "Hiiro, Mayoi! Look at this, they have idols here too!"

He stuffs his phone in both of their faces. With the proximity of the phone being uncomfortably close to his face, Mayoi can only see the home button and one of the blurry silhouettes dancing on the screen. The group that was on was currently singing about haters hating? Aira was bouncing along to the rhythm and Hiiro was nodding along. Mayoi lightly smacks himself to stop any sinful thoughts from entering his mind. Aaaahh, he wishes Tatsumi were here so all of Alkaloid could experience this together.